New Audiobook Releases and Body Work by Melissa Febos

I have been reading Melissa Febos’s writing for years, but I hadn’t read a full-length book from her until last year. Once I’d finished Girlhood, I went out and bought all of her books immediately. 

When Body Work landed on my doorstep, I ran to Hoopla and checked out the audio. In a delightful collision of the best of both worlds, I annotated the print copy while Melissa Febos read the text.

The book’s essays focus on Febos’s approach to writing memoir. From sex scenes to respecting the privacy of others, she covers a wide range of topics perfect for writers, memoir lovers, or the purely curious. 

Febos writes each essay in her precise style, each word carefully chosen. She has this way of expressing her ideas in a clear way that makes you pause and think on what she’s just said.

Whether you are new to Febos’s work or are a long-time fan, you’ll find something wonderful in this audiobook.

Verónica is the child of Peruvian immigrants and was born with hip dysplasia, a condition requiring many surgeries and lots of physical therapy. Her favorite place is the local mermaid show where women in tails dance beneath the water. When a chance to become one of them comes her way, she decides to go for it. But even if she gets the job, how will she manage it when her parents would definitely disapprove?

Narrated by Frankie Corzo

The day before her 40th birthday, Alice tries to cheer herself up. Her father’s health is deteriorating. If only they had more time. The next day, she wakes up and it’s 1996. She is 16 years old, and her dad is vibrant and healthy. Now armed with the wisdom of hindsight, she sees this incredible time for the important time that it was. Alice must decide if she would change anything now that she has the chance.

Narrated by Marin Ireland

Granted, I would listen to anything Jhumpa Lahiri writes, even if it was a grocery list. But I’m especially excited to read her new book all about writing and translating. She draws from Ovid’s myth of Echo and Narcissus and closely examines Aristotle’s Poetics to talk about writing in a broader sense.

Narrated by Sneha Mathan

The author of the much-acclaimed novel Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead is set to publish her new short story collection, You Have a Friend in 10A. These stories illustrate the incredible range of Shipstead’s talent. With settings in Montana, Paris, an Olympic village, and Romania, listeners travel to new places around the world with each story.

Narrated by Mark Bramhall, Mark Deakins, Ari Fliakos, Kyla Garcia, Rebecca Lowman, Alex McKenna, George Newbern, and Xe Sands

Two sisters from Tibet arrive at a refugee camp in Nepal. The two are haunted by their trip over the Himalayas when they lost their parents. Years later, the sisters are separated. When the daughter of one of the sisters begins to uncover some secrets of her family’s past, she must make a life-changing decision. 

Narrated by Asha Vijayasingham, Shridhar Solanki, and Rishma Malik Scott

Five women meet in New York City to work through their problems. Each woman has a horrible story in their past that sounds very suspiciously like a fairytale. Each of the women is suspicious of the others. Can they really trust each other? In this delightfully dark take on women in fairytales, Adelmann creates a one-of-a-kind story.

Narrated by Lauren Ezzo